Reichstag, Wrapped, or chances missed...

It was 30 years ago that Jeanne-Claude and Christo started wrapping the Reichstag building in Berlin, after many years of planning and a long discussion in Germany, including a debate in parliament. At that time, the representatives were still convening in Bonn, the move to the newly (re)declared capitol Berlin had not taken place and refurbishing of the Reichstag building, which had been sitting unused in the middle of borderline country for the years of existence of the GDR had not yet begun. I really wanted to go and see that, after the wrapping was done. I would have taken the train, joined the crowd, taken a sleeping bag and some warm clothes and somehow passed the night and then taken a train back home the next day. I am not a night person at all, and it would have been neck-braking for me, would have set me ‘out of service’ for a few days. I thought it was such a great project.

However – I was in love with a Greek at that time, he thought it was a highly stupid thing to do, both, the wrapping as such and the visit on my part, he was visiting from the States for a few weeks, he did not want to go and refused to spend two days on his own or visit other friends, and I was insecure enough to let him talk me out of that adventure. (I really should have understood at that point, if he couldn’t go along with me on this, he was not the right person to be together with, but it took me a bit more time before I finally realized how little respect he had for me.) Let me tell you – I have regretted that decision to not go see the wrapping ever since. It’s a burning hole in my personal history.

Next attempt was the “Magic of Trees” exhibit of wrapped trees at the Fondation Beyeler inBasel, Switzerland. A friend lived a mere 15 minute walk away from the museum, the train tickets had been bought, I wanted to visit on the last scheduled weekend of the exhibition.

The wrapping had to be taken down a week earlier than planned because the leaves had started falling earlier than expected and it was feared that the weight within the translucent wrapping would damage the trees. I did visit the friend, but I had missed another chance at seeing an exhibition of Jeanne Claude and Christo.

I did get to see the installation in the Oberhausen gasometer, and I was determined to and did go to see the wrapped Arc de Triomphe, as I have written about a few years ago.

But when I heard last week that a light installation on behalf of the 30^th anniversary of the wrapping of the Reichstag is taking place is Berlin until June 20^th, I got itchy. 

 

I thought I would be passing by Berlin in the car to go see my husband – how would it be possible to perhaps fit this in…? On Thursday afternoon I called three people, every single one of my contacts in Berlin whom I felt comfortable enough about to ask if I could spend a night on very short notice. Every single one was either going out of town for the weekend or had visitors that Friday night. Because we have just bought a house and need to be very prudent about finances, staying in a hotel was out of the question. Eventually, I decided to forego the light installation. I tell myself it may be an interesting event in itself, and perhaps it may indeed be illusionary enough to give you the impression of looking at the wrapped Reichstag. But I know watching an ABBA concert performed by avatars is not going to be the same thing as a real concert with the real people on stage and therefore would never pay for a ticket for that, this is a similar situation of creating an illusion - so I probably would not be entirely happy looking at the light installation. A missed chance from 30 years ago just can’t be righted, I have to live with that and look at the picture on the wall that we have. And I do have the memories of a wonderful trip to Paris with my son.

“What advice to you have for younger women?” is one of the questions Sam Baker asks everyone of her guest on her podcast. Mine here? If you really want to do something, don’t let anybody who is not burning for it as ferociously as you are talk you out of it. (And I did go to New Zealand for my bike trip after breaking up with that boyfriend, another thing he had considered absolutely unnecessary. But that’s a different story.)

Stitching? I am spending hours seed stitching the background of the Blue NuDenim…

 

To be continued... 

June 17th

 

Going for a bike ride in the afternoon I saw this solitary rape flower in the field...

On June 17, 1953, an uprising took place in the Eastern part of then-separated Germany, people went on strike and protested against the regime, unfulfillable raising of quotas of production, political conditions. At least 50 people died when Russian troops intervened. (Find historical notes in English here. Find historical notes in German here.)

Subsequently, June 17^th was declared a National Holiday in the West, called “Day of German Unity”. It was scratched from the list of holidays when German reunification took place in 1990, and October 3^rd became the new National Holiday.

In a way, the events of June 17, 1953, influenced my family’s history.  Shortly afterwards a brief period of family reunifications began and my grandmother and her two younger daughters (one of them would become my mother) could legally leave the GDR to join my grandfather, who had left the country by swimming through a small river after he had been told that Russian authority were planning to arrest him. Without that uprising, who knows what would have happened?

As the day came and went this year I read several newspaper commentaries on the fact that Germany currently does not have a Memorial Day for victims of GDR-rule, and only this year a first (temporary) memorial was created in Berlin. The history of Germany as a divided country is still very present in my mind due to the fact that my mother’s eldest sister stayed behind because she was already married when her mother and sisters left, and her husband thought he could not leave the small business he had taken over from his parents – only to be disappropriated a few years later. I always thought it would have been rather appropriate to keep June 17^th as a national holiday. Or choose November 8 or 9 as a day of national remembrance, because so many historical events took place on that day, it would have made much more sense than taking October 3^rd.

After the last couple of rather emotional weeks and a lot of work I have gone to be with my husband for a few days and could use the not-anymore-holiday as a quiet day. Yesterday and the day before I had finally sat down to work on my newest piece for the next 20 Perspectives challenge. The topic is “3D”, which is not my piece of cake at all, but I just had to go along with the group’s decision. Which resulted in me putting it off for much longer than was wise, except for a little bit of planning a few weeks ago.

 

Using denim – which I never expected to be doing in quilts – I am working on an appropriated version of Henri Matisse’s “Blue Nude”. Attaching the denim bits on the background fabric was relatively quick and easy.

 

Now I wonder why I had the idea to use seed stitch for the entire background…

 

 Listening to an audio book, sitting on the balcony and enjoying the sunshine time passed pleasantly enough, and I already got a lot of the stitching done.

Fortunately, reveal date was pushed back by 2 weeks, so I will be relatively close to finishing, I hope, by the time that date rolls around.